UNUSUAL FIRE DANGERS

Greymouth Evening Star, 22 February 1937, Page 4

UNUSUAL FIRE DANGERS

STATIC ELECTRICITY. According to Mr. T. Alfred Fleming, of the New York National Board of Fire Underwriters, electrolysis is a little understood fire hazard. It Avas. lie says, unquestionably the cause of what might have been a tragedy in .Utica, New York, in February last. In the busiest section of the down-town area all business was suspended for [ ihore than 48 hours, telephone and i gas services over a much larger area were interrupted, and several fires occurred in nearby buildings following the ignition of gas escaping from a street main. The gas, he suggests, may have been ignited by a workman’s pick striking a stone while the repair of the water main was in progress. The leak in the water main was, no doubt, due, he says, to electrolysis. or electric currents straying from their usual return and using water or gas pipes instead. The break was near the street car tracks. When dug up the water pipe Avas found to have been eaten away for a distance of almost three feet, and the water had washed out a cavity extending 15 feet or 20 feet square and about seven feet deep. Low-pressure gas mains had been undermined by the removal of the supporting soil, and the 6in. gas main had broken from the strain. Ti ansformers, SAvitchcs and circuit breakers using inflammable oils arc 1 is I cd by Mr. Fleming as potential fire hazards, although normally harmless (reports ‘‘Engineering"). To static electricity, he says, is ascribed the cause of many serious explosions and fires. In a paper mill a workman was washing a rubber printing roll with gasoline (contrary to orders). Static electricity generated by passing of paper over the rolls ignited the fumes of the gasoline and the entire plant was destroyed. In Mr. Fleming’s opinion, there are but few industrial operations where static electricity is not

generated. In intensity, he says, it runs to from 5000 volts to 65,000 volts with very small amperage. A discharge continues for only a small fraction of a second, having no continuous source of supply, and it is especially dangerous in plants where there is dust or inflammable vapour which might easily explode.